Resort or Ski Area: Big Squaw Mtn

Conditions: Powder Packed Powder….Sunny, windy, cold.

Trip Report:
I was in the Moosehead area to attend a Superbowl party/game, and decided to break away to ski Big Squaw Mtn. First of all, I haven’t skied Squaw since 1984, so I could barely remember the layout. For those that don’t know the history of Squaw…I’ll give you the brief history: It opened in 1963 outside of Greenville, ME on the beautiful/remote shores of Moosehead Lake. Back in the day of full operations you had 4 lifts (a double to the top, a triple to mid-Mountain, & two suface lifts) to get you to the ~3200 foot summit for 1700 vertical feet of old sytle New England trails with some of the best views around. In 2004, one of the chairs on the summit double detached resulting in injury, and since the chair has not been in operation shutting down lift access to the summit 😥 The current triple gives you about 600 vertical feet with 25+ trails (or about 7-8 ways down). I managed to ski everything with exception of a few glades & the green trail skiers left towards the old motel. I was there for just over 2 hours (which for me was just about the right amount of time, since the vert is limited & fairly flat as you approach the bottom of the lift). The conditions were awesome. The mountain is only open on weekends so there was plenty untracked Pow from the storms earlier in the week….They do groom & most open trails were groomed or half groomed leaving plenty of opportunity to play in the au natrual conditions. It would be so awesome for this place to open the summit again, however I just don’t see it happening due to the remoteness of the mountain….It’s sad, as this mountain has some awesome terrain at the top. One can only dream (or reminisce). According to the lift operator I talked with, he said it would take $2.5 million to get the summit double going again.

TOD: Exterminator (under the chair & probably the "steepest" section of trail )…was left ungroomed & made for lots of fun to lap.

Riding up the triple:
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Fresh(Deep) Pow on the sides:
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"Dropping" into Exterminator with Mt. Kineo in background:
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